Contact

I am a staff scientist and the deputy group head of the Cosmology and Large Scale Structure group, here at the AIP. My work focuses on galaxy formation, the Milky Way, the Local Group, cosmography and constrained simulations.

I have written a number of popular articles for the layperson, two of which appeared in Scientific American. I wrote the most recent one with my colleague Brent Tully on Cosmography in 2016 (which also made it into Scienitific Americans "Top 20 Stories of 2016" and "Wonders of the Cosmos" 2017) and one on Dark matter and the dwarf galaxies of the Milky Way in 2014. Please email me if you would like a PDF of either article.

My research includes:

- Galaxy formation and hydrodynamical simulations

- Satellite and dwarf galaxies of the Milky Way and Andromeda

- The origin of halo spin

- The cosmic web and characterization of the Megaparsec Universe

- The Local Group

- Alignments of galaxies with respect to their environment

I am one of the PIs of the Constrained Local UniversE Simulation Project (CLUES) which aims at constructing initial conditions that are constrained to reproduce the main features of the local universe.

I am a PI of the High-resolution Environmental Simulations of The Immediate Area (HESTIA) project, which is underway.

I am also involved in the MultiDark simulations, a spanish led consortium that produces some of the largest cosmological simulations out there. these simulations, along with data products such as halo catalogues, Mergertrees and semi-analytical galaxy catalogues, are made public for use by the community.

I am part of the SOC for the 15th AIP Thinkshop on "The role of feedback in galaxy formation: from small-scale winds to large-scale outflow"

Periodically, I organize CLUES meetings. The last one (in 2017) was in Madrid. The next one (2018) will be Tenerife.

I recently co-organized a meeting in Obergurgl, Austria regarding issues facing Near Field Cosmology.

Ages ago I organized a meeting on the Cosmic Web at the Lorentz Center (in Leiden), for which info can be found here. A paper comparing cosmic web identifiers came out of that meeting and is in press.

I also organized a meeting on dwarfs and the Local Universe, (in Potsdam) for which info can be found here (see below). The meeting was rewarded with a municipal award from the city of Potsdam for being the best meeting within the past two years in Potsdam: see the press release here.